Overused Marketing Word du Jour: "Vibrant"

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I know, I know, when the marketing jackals sink their fangs into a word it instantly becomes overused by definition. But all of the sudden I'm seeing all sorts of things described hopefully as "vibrant," the hope being, of course, that rather than think about what the word really means, you'll read it as "very very good and worth spending money on." I noticed a long time ago that careful writers are at least mildly interested in what the word they're using means—its denotation. But marketing people are almost exclusively interested in the connotation—the things we associate with the word, and especially the emotions it evokes. People can be vibrant, and often we like such people. Cities can be vibrant, and often we enjoy visiting them. But this?

Vibrant Technologies buys and sells used IT equipment including servers, storage and networking equipment. A top reseller for used server and refurbished ...
Some people are vibrant, as we've noted, and some places. But I can't imagine how a refurbished server or a person likely to be selling one could possibly be described as vibrant. Anyway, connotation and denotation, OK? Thanks.

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This page contains a single entry by Matt published on June 16, 2010 9:54 AM.

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